Maisie Lang has a plan to drive away memories of the heartbreak of last Christmas over the holiday break. She takes a temp job as a dog walker. But the moment she sets foot in her first client’s home she’s drawn into more than just wagging tails and an escape from the pain of the past.
Sexy single dad Wes Curran is determined to distract his kids from the one thing that is obviously missing this holiday their mother. He hires a dog walker to help out while he plans a whirlwind vacation for the kids, but finds out far too fast that even the best intentions sometimes create unintended consequences.
When dogs, kids, the holidays, and two unexpected arrivals bring Wes and Maisie together, they are forced to face old wounds and new passion. With their hearts and the holidays on the line, the only solution may be to become mistletoe famous.
Callie Chase works as a professional book editor and teaches writing, copyediting, and editing (under her legal name) in the Writers Program at UCLA Extension.
A second generation author, she is the oldest daughter of a career romance writer, which she likes to joke explains a *lot.* She is obsessed with mythology and folklore and could happily live inside a fantasy video game or Middle Earth (with the right weapons and company, of course).
Callie adores horror and fantasy, and writes adventure-filled love stories that draw on themes of found family, redemption, and overcoming monsters of all types. She lives in Los Angeles, which is the perfect intersection of horror and fantasy for someone born and raised in the Midwest.
Find Callie on social media or her website where she offers a free 65,000 word novel set in the Thieves of Tutovl universe when you sign up for her newsletter. She's hard at work on multiple series: The Thieves of Tutovl books are slow-burn, lower heat standalone fantasy romances that can be read in any order, but which bring back some of the same characters from book to book. In 2023, she'll be releasing two new series set in the same world, both of which are darker and steamier that the lighter Thieves books.
If you like serial fiction, her zombie series Bug is available on Kindle Vella. She wasn't kidding about loving horror and fantasy! But always with a happy ever after.
Is this really Callie's debut novel? Her writing is excellent. The use of language is lovely. Her world-building and character development are top-notch. Her characters are likeable and relatable.
I feel like it dragged a little bit in the middle - could have perhaps been a touch shorter, but then it picked up and got exciting! A couple twists I wasn't expecting!
I'm interested in the stories of the side characters, and will definitely read future books.
Maisie is an adult with a career whose confidence was dinged last Christmas. Her hero might have made even more progress through the book than she did.
I enjoyed reading about Maisie and Wes. She’s heartbroken and he is a single dad who is trying to survive without much assistance with his two kids. Enjoyed how they fell in love over Christmas break.
Perfect Christmas (or even Halloween as in my case) read!
Well this was utterly charming! The children felt authentically written without being stereotypes. LOVED Wes ;) But I also really appreciated the conflict resolutions.